Answer
Blockage of the furnace exhaust by the squirrel's nest caused carbon monoxide (CO)to accumulate in the house. Carbon monoxide is a odorless, colorless gas and carbon monoxide poisoning is painless. The Robinsons breathed in more and more CO during the night until the hemoglobin (hgb) in their blood supplies was saturated with CO. The carbon monoxide displaced the oxygen from the hgb because CO has greater chemical affinity for hemoglobin ( >X200) than oxygen does.
Starved for oxygen the brains of the Robinsons starved of oxygen sunk into deeper and deeper uncocious and then complete loss of conciousness and death
Work Step by Step
If the unfortunate Robinsons had been awake at the star of the exposure to carbon monoxide they might have been warned and able to escape: although the gas is tasteless and odourless, there are early warning signs of CO poisoning; these include headaches, dizziness, chest pains, shortness of breath(SOB), nausea and vomiting. In any building, the best protection against CO poisoning is a properly functioning carbon monoxide monitor .
